Google says it didn't kill that donkey

Todd Wasserman

Google has answered a query that had been consuming the blogosphere for 24 hours: why did the donkey lie down on the road?

The speculation began when an image of a donkey lying on its side in the middle of a dirt road in the Kweneng region of Botswana emerged on Google Street View. Then @TheRealSheldonCooper tweeted his suspicions about the photo to his 149,500 followers.

After a social media uproar, Google addressed the controversy on its Google Maps blog on Wednesday. In a post entitled "Never ass-ume", Kei Kawai, group product manager for Google Maps provided photographic evidence that the donkey got up and walked away after the above image was taken.

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So what was the donkey doing? Kawai speculated that the donkey was taking a dust bath.

This isn't the first time Google has posted a provocative image on Street View. Past sightings include an apparently headless man, a guy getting arrested and what looks like a beam from outer space. Steve Jobs was also apparently spotted in a Street View image as well.

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